New Additions to the Household

Last year, a feral cat started hanging out in their front yard. She wouldn’t let Morgan and Mark near her, and they started to suspect that the cat was pregnant. Morgan began sitting near the cat and talking to her frequently. “I would tell her how beautiful she was and what a good little girl she was,” Morgan says. The cat slowly started accepting her and letting Morgan pet her. As the cat became friendlier, Morgan and Mark wondered if maybe the cat wasn’t pregnant after all. But one Sunday, they were out on the porch, and the cat came over. Morgan leaned down to pet her, and the cat showed no desire to run away. So Morgan sat down, and the cat laid down and put her head on Mark’s shoe. Then the cat made a noise that Morgan recognized as unmistakable. “I said, ‘Oh my God, Mark, she just went into labor.’” Morgan sat there and kept petting the cat all through her labor.

Earlier in the year when it was cold and rainy, Morgan had asked Mark to put a box outside so the cat would have shelter if needed. “As far as I knew, she never went in it,” Morgan says. “All of a sudden, she jumps up, runs in that box, and has the kittens right there.”

Responsible Godparents

After going through that experience, Morgan and Mark wanted to be sure the kittens were healthy and get them spayed or neutered. “That’s how I discovered FixNation,” Morgan says. “I took them all over there, and everyone was so kind and great with the kittens.” The mama cat had started hissing at them again, guarding the kittens, but Morgan and Mark wanted to have her spayed too. So Karn Myers, a co-founder of FixNation, gave them a humane trap, which they didn’t end up needing. The cat let Morgan pick her up and put her in the cage.

The veterinarians at FixNation dewormed, vaccinated, and microchipped all the cats. They also tested them for diseases. “We couldn’t bring them inside with the two older ones until they had been vetted for illness,” Morgan says. “We didn’t want Little Guy and Mariah to catch anything.”

The mama cat, Princess (so named because Morgan and Mark waited on her hand and foot) and kittens Snoops, Thunder Dome, and Ferny (Ferdinanda) have all found their place inside their home. When they lived outside, Princess used to herd the kittens into an empty, round terra cotta pot. The kittens are almost 2 years old now, but Morgan sometimes still finds them piled on top of each other, just like they used to do in that big pot on the porch.

Helping Animals in Need

Morgan cares deeply about helping animals. She spends a lot of time online networking to get animals adopted or fostered (you can follow her on Twitter as @morgfair). She also donates to adoption and rescue groups to help animals find homes and keep pets from being euthanized. That’s why the multiplying stray cat population concerns her. Morgan prefers that these cats find homes but knows that isn’t always possible for some feral cats.

“I think we need FixNation and groups like FixNation that are in other cities that help people help animals,” Morgan says. “I really admire what they’re doing because local people can track cats in their neighborhood, bring them in and get them fixed so that they’re not overbreeding, and then release them back to the wild again, if someone doesn’t want to keep the cats or can’t keep them or a cat seems too wild to keep. But then at least the cats aren't out there creating more cats in the same situation.”

Dogs in Her Future?

Although she shares her life with cats these days, Morgan isn’t ruling out having a dog again. “I love dogs, but I don’t really have a yard for a dog to run around in,” she says. “I might have a dog again one of these days — not when I’ve got six cats.”

For the time being, Morgan has gotten her fix of dogs while she’s been on the set of Wiener Dog Internationals (the sequel to Wiener Dog Nationals). These family-friendly movies feature Dachshunds of all coats, colors, and markings. (For fans, a third film is in the works!) Morgan plays Ms. Merryweather, and the part of her dog was shared by two dogs, Cash and Aurora.

“It was great fun being on the set on the days when all the dogs worked,” she says, “ just seeing them all happy and running around on their short little legs and playing!” Morgan was thrilled that almost all of the dogs in the movies were rescues who were all adopted. “I’m always so happy to see rescued animals find homes!”

Morgan appreciates the people who have asked her to take pets or help them find new homes for the animals. These days, she makes a special effort to try to help black animals, seniors, and others who often get overlooked in shelters.

“Just try to be kind to each other and kind to other life on the planet,” Morgan says. “Value their lives as well as yours. They give us a lot more than we ever give them.”

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of HealthyPet magazine.